THE last group of traders in a shopping centre that is about to be bulldozed found themselves being boarded in - while they were still working in the city centre premises.

Staff at Cafe One, the UK’s first fairtrade venue, at Five Ways in Edgbaston, are embroiled in a row with developers Mars Pension Trustees and its agents Lasalle Investment Management, which is preparing the centre for demolition.

"What’s happened is beyond belief," said Cafe One owner Sam Alim, who also runs WhatsOnUK magazine from the base in Auchinleck Square.

"We’ve had no letter and no court order to get out of the building. They are just using bully boy tactics," he claimed.

"It’s been very frightening - one of our staff has a 14-week-old baby with her, so it hasn’t been very pleasant."

Sam, who launched Cafe One nine years ago as a popular social enterprise, closed the cafe a month ago but still ran the magazine from the premises off Broad Street.

He had been hoping to move to new offices in Hurst Street next month but now he is being forced out much earlier.

He added: "We have a lot of equipment here that we need to look after and we need to keep the magazine going. We could climb out but then we would say goodbye to our livelihood. This is pure intimidation."

A spokesman for Lasalle Investment Management said: "We are the retained property advisers to the Mars Pension Fund and it is our job to identify opportunities which will help provide long term security for Mars’ pensioners.

" It would be impossible to carry out the required redevelopment while the premises are occupied. Knowing this, when shops and offices in the centre have become vacant, they have either been kept empty or let on a short-term basis at either a very low rent or even nil rent.

" All the tenants have therefore always known that they would not be able to remain in the premises in the long term and have benefited from very low rents or even rent free premises."